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Gary Cheung

Music and dance tests have seen the biggest increase in candidates over the past decade, with a UK music exam emerging as the most popular voluntary test among Hong Kong people.

The enthusiasm for music and dance exams coincides with the Government's promotion of all-round development as a goal of educational reforms.

A total of 66,838 candidates will sit the exams commissioned by the UK's Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) this year - ABRSM practical tests are held in August every year.

The figure represents an increase of 32 per cent since 1991-92 when about 45,000 candidates sat the tests.

In 2000/2001, 62,223 sat exams conducted by the Hong Kong Examinations Authority (HKEA). The HKEA has been commissioned by more than 120 professional bodies to administer exams in Hong Kong.

A total of 199,385 candidates sat overseas and professional exams conducted by the HKEA in the 2000/2001 school year, compared with 198,326 in 1996-1997.

The ABRSM music exams have overtaken the accounting and bookkeeping exams offered by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examinations Board (LCCI), which until 1999-2000 were the most popular.

A total of 10,339 candidates will sit the Royal Academy of Dance exams this year, up 41 per cent in 10 years. Last year a total of 9,304 sat the exams which commence in June.

The number of candidates sitting the Chinese Dance exam in 2001/2002, commissioned by Beijing Dance Academy, will be 1,908, up 74 per cent on the figure for 1991-1992.

Margaret Lo Wai-kei, head of the HKEA overseas and professional examinations division, said the rise in the number of candidates sitting music and dance exams showed the growing importance attached by parents to improving their children's all-round development.

Dr Cheung Kwok-wah, associate dean of the faculty of education at the University of Hong Kong, said in recent years local parents had been spending more on their children's extra-curricular activities, especially music.

'The Government espouses students' all-round development as the goal of education reform,' he said. 'Parents may have taken the message that extra-curricular activities will become more important in the years ahead.'

One commentator, Mrs Tang, said her daughter Edna, who started playing piano at age five, had an advantage when applying for a Form Four place at a prestigious boarding school in England in the next school year.

'The school only enrols two students to study Form Four each year,' said Mrs Tang, adding: 'We were told at the end of last year that she was on the waiting list.' The 14-year-old was offered an interview in February and the school's student admissions teacher said she was impressed by the fact Edna had passed the ABRSM Grade 8 level.

There are altogether eight levels in ABRSM's practical tests. Fees for the exams start at $400.

'We encourage Edna to sit the music exams because it is a measure of the standard she has attained,' Mrs Tang said.

Audrey Tan Joey-yi, 11, said she started learning to play the piano when she was four. She is due to sit the Grade 6 test of the ABRSM at the end of this year.

'I consider passing the exam as proof that I have attained a certain standard,' she said.



Music exams top of the pops